‘Which are the press and which are the apes?’ The tumultuous relationship between Philip and the media

Prince Philip had a hearty distaste for much of the British media, which he blamed for inflicting great damage on the royal family: “The media have turned us into a soap opera,” he grumbled.

His near-contempt for journalism was focused on one particular figure, Rupert Murdoch. In an unfilmed interview with Jeremy Paxman he accused the media baron of having an anti-establishment attitude which, he said, had undermined “quite reasonable institutions”.

According to Paxman, Philip “exploded” at Murdoch’s name. “It’s Murdoch – it’s the arrival of television, it’s the decline of the print media, it’s the mentality that thrives in the tabloids,” he exclaimed.

But, in fact, the Prince’s low opinion of the media long pre-dated the Murdoch era, going back at least as far as his honeymoon in 1947, when he found the attentions of reporters and photographers intolerably intrusive. On that occasion he sarcastically issued thanks for the “loving interest” shown in himself and his new wife.

On the morning of his wedding, however, he had mellowed enough to order coffee to be sent out to the press pack huddled in the cold. He was also one of the first royals to give interviews, confining them to various causes he supported.

In 1969 he took a major initiative to improve his family’s image by endorsing a BBC television programme, Royal Family, which gave the cameras unprecedented access to royals in informal settings. The show attracted phenomenal viewing figures but backfired badly, robbing them of much of their mystique by showing them as highly privileged, old-fashioned and out of touch.

Another setback came when, ever hopeful, he authorised his office to cooperate with a TV documentary, The Real Prince Philip. This charted his four-month 1956 voyage on Britannia, with various friends, which took in Australia, Antarctica and islands such as the Falklands.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip over the years: In pictures

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He had hoped it would portray his dedication to arduous journeys flying the flag for Britain. Instead he was appalled, considering that it suggested that the trip was more of a bachelor jaunt than an example of devotion to duty. He had his private secretary complain to the filmmakers that it implied, “that the journey was undertaken in order to get away from the Queen and the court, and that it was a spree”. It was said to have provided material for, “innuendos about Prince Philip’s private life which are overstated and unbalanced”.

With hindsight, his various attempts to get the media on the side of the royals look naive and counter-productive. Then once the saga of Charles and Diana hit the media there was little anyone could do to improve the royal image.

This caused his hostility to the press to grow even deeper. He did not read tabloids and glanced at only one of the broadsheets, he said. “I reckon one’s enough. I can’t cope with them.”

He once confided: “If I’m doing something I care about I really hope the press won’t come along too, because I know they’ll only ruin it.” On a visit to Gibraltar he asked with some bitterness: “Which are the press and which are the bloody apes?”